Keith Urban: Grateful for the Lean Years

Grateful. That’s the word that comes to mind for Keith Urban, when he looks back on all the snapshots of his life.

In the new issue of People, he shares pictures from his 25-year career as an artist – including my all-time favorite of four-year-old Urban with his ukulele – and opens up about the highs and lows that came with the journey.

He admits that after a pretty good run in the music industry in Australia, coming to America to be a country singer was like starting at the bottom all over again, and, “It was excruciating.”

Then there was another low: his struggle with addiction.

“I wish there was an easier way to get to where I am,” he says, “but I feel so deeply blessed to be here.”

Blessed, too, because he seems to have had more good than bad. In fact, when he talked about his album-release party on the streets on Nashville on May 9, he said, “I’ve lived in Nashville for 24 years, and to see that many people come out on a Monday, it touched my heart.”